Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Gets Series-Wide Multiplayer Overhaul

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and its assorted sequels will survive the GameSpy server shutdown.

The infamous GameSpy shutdown will take effect in just a couple days, killing the multiplayer functionality of a lot of popular games. The list of victims includes Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series of strategy games - or so we thought. A last-minute patch from the developers has been released for all seven games in the Dawn of War franchise, completely replacing their multiplayer infrastructure to save them from the shutdown.

The most recent title in the series, Dawn of War II: Retribution, uses Steamworks to handle its multiplayer - but older entries relied on GameSpy and other "external" servers. Relic, not wanting to see its back catalogue lose a huge part of its value, devised a plan to migrate the games' multiplayer services to more stable homes. Each game in the series is being integrated with the hosting and matchmaking system Relic developed for Company of Heroes 2 - which actually means that the Dawn of War multiplayer isn't just being preserved, it's being improved.

"This update - and continued further support for DoW and DoW2 - is a big step for us at Relic," writes Dawn of War design lead Philippe Boulle. "It's a concrete signal of support for the Dawn of War franchise from us and from SEGA as a whole."

Dawn of Warnow joins Halo: Combat Evolved in the "saved by patches" lifeboat. It's good to see a developer watching out for its older games, especially in this age of fire-and-forget releases.

There's always one faction, just look at Dawn of Eldar for the original Dawn of War and it's expansions.

And yeah we could have played it either way but you know? It's still REALLY nice to see a game developer like Relic (Who's art director drew for Extra Credits this week) having respect for it's players and not treating them like cash cows. Yes EA I mean you.

It is nice, but I just don't get why Games Workshop is dragging it's heels. I mean, even Dawn of War II sold well enough that they were going to make a third. You don't do that hoping your second installment will do well enough to warrant producing another one. So.. why haven't they picked another company yet? Get it out there! We have money! We will pay. Give us some Tau, because there's nothing funnier than crushing those bluies who don't use their fists!

kajinking:[quote="ObsidianJones" post="7.851250.21039986"]If you interested there's a community mod (Elite Mod) for DOW:2 Retribution that gets played quite heavily still. They made a lot of balance passes, added new units with custom models, they even added in a whole new faction (Grey Knights). I've watched enough casts of the modded game to know Chaos isn't overly broken (the Orks may take that award with their Nob squad and painboy combo).

This would be Idrid's channel he casts elite mod regularly.

I regularly play (by myself, I could never get matchmaking to work) and I've subbed to Idrid a while ago. It was a huge help when my graphics card died and I didn't have any way to play my games. But the modders are so heavily slanted to Chaos, it's not even funny. Look at the Codex for Dawn of War II elite mod. Worship everything, somehow even though Chaos is a heavily melee army they get some of the best Dakka in the game.

What do the Loyal Sons of the Emperor get? Purity Seals? Enhanced Cybernetics? Auspex? The ability to give your Assault Squad Power Axes or Meltas? True Devastator Squads that every member can take a heavy weapon?

Nope. Sternguard. Vanguard. Don't get me wrong, I do work with them, but there are so many things that the Emperor's chosen get nixed for 'balance'. If you take away from one because you think they can be overpowered, and literally pour through the book to see what more they can buff another team... that's not balance!

glory to the immortal god Emperor of mankind. Hopfully they will start supporting dow2 again or at least to get everyone interested abit more then BOOM DAWN OF WAR 3 TRAILER, that will top the 1st and 2nd game intros :)

Awww man, I saw Dawn of War in the news section and got really excited, was hoping for a "3" to appear somewhere.

Still, as everyone else has said, nice one Relic. I discovered the Elite mod For DoW2: Retribution and Unlimited Apocalypse for DoW: Soulstorm (Titans in DoW. Yes!) so I've been playing them quite a bit recently.

Good on ya, Relic. I consider the first game and its expansions to be one of the best RTS experiences out there (it's also what got me interested in the WH40k universe). Seeing continued support for the game makes me happy, even if I don't really benefit from it. I suck at RTS games to the point where I struggle against Normal AI opponents. As such, the very thought of competing against other flesh and blood players is downright laughable, particularly when they've got years of experience.

ObsidianJones:... I was so excited. I thought there was a new game or something in the works. This isn't bad news, of course but..

I remember seeing news about Dawn of War 3 long ago. Maybe a game where Chaos isn't heavily favored and there was balance.

Dreams are made to break your heart, kids. Write that down. That's a life lesson.

alright Relic, CoH 2 is now forgiven, you are back in my list of top developers, you guys have proven me, after your post launch support above and beyond the call of duty for CoH 1, and your support of the dawn of war series, that you have love for your art

once this patch lands i think ill grab chaos rising and finish my DoW2 collection, if i dont have to deal with shitty GFWL ever again ill be one happy man

ObsidianJones:... I was so excited. I thought there was a new game or something in the works. This isn't bad news, of course but..

I remember seeing news about Dawn of War 3 long ago. Maybe a game where Chaos isn't heavily favored and there was balance.

Dreams are made to break your heart, kids. Write that down. That's a life lesson.

There's always one faction, just look at Dawn of Eldar for the original Dawn of War and it's expansions.

And yeah we could have played it either way but you know? It's still REALLY nice to see a game developer like Relic (Who's art director drew for Extra Credits this week) having respect for it's players and not treating them like cash cows. Yes EA I mean you.

ObsidianJones:... I was so excited. I thought there was a new game or something in the works. This isn't bad news, of course but..

I remember seeing news about Dawn of War 3 long ago. Maybe a game where Chaos isn't heavily favored and there was balance.

Dreams are made to break your heart, kids. Write that down. That's a life lesson.

If you interested there's a community mod (Elite Mod) for DOW:2 Retribution that gets played quite heavily still. They made a lot of balance passes, added new units with custom models, they even added in a whole new faction (Grey Knights). I've watched enough casts of the modded game to know Chaos isn't overly broken (the Orks may take that award with their Nob squad and painboy combo).

Charcharo:This whole ordeal strikes me very odd. If those were console games, I undersant, almost NO chance of playing them anymore. But these are PC games, so they will have no problem in the long run...

It is better to move the entire player base in one go and avoid forcing them to use third party software. It avoids fragmentation and it means you get to say the online features are still there and be telling the whole truth.

Compared to EA's little maneuver of putting all the Battlefield games on sale then announcing support ends on Saturday this is positively saintly. Even with VPNs it's pretty much going to kill off the random pub player that everyone needs to keep their servers populated, you can't have 24 v24 arranged games very often.

Make no mistake, I know that and respect the switch.I know it will help the community (though those that still play probably do not use official servers anyway).

Its better then EA. But still, I dont get why the drama. The games are not dead in any way shape or form :)

Charcharo:This whole ordeal strikes me very odd. If those were console games, I undersant, almost NO chance of playing them anymore. But these are PC games, so they will have no problem in the long run...

It is better to move the entire player base in one go and avoid forcing them to use third party software. It avoids fragmentation and it means you get to say the online features are still there and be telling the whole truth.

Compared to EA's little maneuver of putting all the Battlefield games on sale then announcing support ends on Saturday this is positively saintly. Even with VPNs it's pretty much going to kill off the random pub player that everyone needs to keep their servers populated, you can't have 24 v24 arranged games very often.